10 Things I learned in Media Literacy:

1. Just because they tell you it’s true, doesn’t mean that it is true. This class has definitely reminded me that I have to be a skeptic when looking at any type of media.

2.Lunz scares me. He seemed okay with what he was doing. He didn’t appear to believe that he was misrepresenting information by changing the words politicians use.

3.I was watching the news this morning and saw a clip on U.S. Air. It’s pilots were filing grievances saying that the airline was pressuring them to take on less fuel. The news clip seemed to be very much on the side of the pilots complete with Experts and Plain Clothes interviews. It didn’t quite seem to fit in the local broadcast. I wondered if it was put out by the pilot’s union. Before this class, I wasn’t aware that news broadcasters would do this.

4. How enormous companies like AOL/TimeWarner, Disney, Viacom are. I know they were big, but I wasn’t aware of how diverse their holdings are.

5. Yaks are raised for fiber and meat.

6. The 7 Basic Principles of Media Education and the 29 Persuasive Techniques. Super valuable.

7. The Feed. It’s there and I’m plugged into it to some extent. What does that mean and can I resist the Feed? Should I resist the Feed? These are some new questions that came with this renewed realization that the Feed is all around us.

8. This is big business, man. I can’t find the name of the French consultant that said, “American cheese is dead!” but I was blown away at how much companies will pay to consult with him. I’m very curious to see what his formula is.

9. Political ads are evil. They just prey on emotions. The Bush ads in particular were total fear mongering. How did the dems not beat them?

10. Awareness. It’s important to be aware of the Feed. It’s there. One should always look at whats presented with a critical eye.

Remaining questions?

Is resistance futile? Can you fight the feed? Or, like V’s dad, will we all succumb?

I wonder what critics thought of advertisement back in the 20’s and 30’s. Sure it was factual based, and very different from it is now. All those facts couldn’t be true though. Did Crest really give you the brightest smile? Just a made up example there, but I wonder if people thought critically at those ads.

Where do we go from here? I’m cynical I guess. When Money gets involved with something it immediately becomes corruptible and it’s hard to put right. Clouds TM, school TM, etc. Are these inevitable?

Drew, bring food and project next Friday.